How does the brain work with diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus affects not only metabolism, but also many other processes in the body, including brain function, researchers at the Siberian State Medical University studied the effect of diabetes mellitus on the cognitive functions of the brain using MRI. The results of the study are published in the journal Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology.

The scientists used "tractography" for their research, a non-invasive method of studying the nerve pathways in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). According to scientists, this technique has shown its effectiveness and can already be introduced into clinical practice today. This method will help physicians to get a clear picture of the state of various areas of the brain of patients and timely track the changes taking place in them.

According to Ria.ru, researchers have found that tractography can be used to effectively observe the changes that occur in patients with various types of diabetes mellitus as the disease progresses.

“We were able to evaluate the fundamental mechanisms of changes in the white matter of the brain in diabetes mellitus and their role in the formation of cognitive impairment. We found that changes in sugar and cholesterol levels affect the integrity of the pathways of the brain, and the worsening circumstance in type 1 diabetes is the presence of complications, and in type 2 diabetes the patient's age,” said Professor, Head of the Center for Clinical Research at Siberian State Medical University Yulia Samoilova.

According to scientists, there are currently no analogues to the proposed method: it is impossible to evaluate the fine architecture of the brain in vivo using other methods. Diagnosis using tractography is not expensive, it requires only an MRI machine.

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